I travellled over there this year. If you are going to the French alps base yourself in Bourg de Oisans at the base of Alpe d Huez. Grenoble is too far from the action. From Bourg you can access Lauteret, Galibier, Croix de Fer, Glandon etc very easily.

I've stayed with Pyractif just getting bed and board and also done three of their guided tours. Highly recommended, great location, easy to reach a lot of cols with not much travel time. I wouldn't call them expensive, either, if you think they are expensive try a few of their competitors.... I'm going back in September to do their Coast to Coast.

Appreciate you want to cram in as much as you can into your time but I would seriously consider reconsidering doing both the Alps and Pyrenees in the time you have available (i.e not really enough). France is a big country and even driving direct between them will take up a big chunk of time. You will be more relaxed sticking to one area and see it better. Gives you an excuse to come back in a couple of years and go to the mountain area you didn't visit.

toolonglegs wrote:ALSO BIG BEWARE ...you will not be able to take your bike on a tgv unless it is in a compact soft bike bag...there are exceptions but plenty of people get turned around trying to wheel bikes or big bike bags onto TGV's..

No...that's a big bag. You would have to check if there is velo carriage. Usually on the time table there will a velo symbol. This means that certain carriages will carry a velo or case. Only about 8 velos on a train though. There is often a charge ( 10 euros or so).Local trains are no problem... Just tgv's that are the issue and often hard to find the info for each train.

The way it works is that you can turn up at the station and they will not complain if you have packed your bike into a bag or box as long as it does not exceed 120 x 90 cm on the long sides. This is treated as ordinary baggage - not as a bike, no need to book a bike space, no extra cost etc. It is up to you to lug it on the train but it will fit in one of the racks somewhere although you may have to move other people's luggage around to make it fit. I've done this at least 4 times. Travelling first class is easier as there is more space.

If you exceed those dimensions they can get shirty and may refuse travel. The other option is to book a bike hook which some of the TGV's have. You can travel with a completely built up bike this way. As toolonglegs says it is not easy to know in advance which trains have them. The double-decker "duplex" TGV's do NOT have them, so you can go to the DB Bahn journey planner http://www.bahn.com/i/view/GBR/en/index.shtml, enter in your train and if the details say "TGV Duplex" it will not have the bike hooks.

http://www.sportcommunication.info/web2 ... trophee=5727th may... 172km 3380m or 110km with 2000m climbing. Close to Grenoble, inscription possible on the day... You should give it a go. French cyclos are fun and very competitive. This one is not too big... 500 in the 172 km & 700 in 110km.

Who is online

About the Australian Cycling Forums

The largest cycling discussion forum in Australia for all things bike; from new riders to seasoned bike nuts, the Australian Cycling Forums are a welcoming community where you can ask questions and talk about the type of bikes and cycling topics you like.